The fusion of deutrium and tritium releases much of the reaction energy in the form of highly energetic 14.1 MeV neutrons. Considerable effort has been spent in the past few years in a search for means to capture this neutron kinetic energy and convert it efficiently to chemical binding energy and in particular to a substitute natural gas. Past studies indicate that for pure gas phase radiolysis (such as CO.sub.2) both the "capture" and the "conversion" are difficult and present low output yields of CO in the order of G(CO)&lt;10.
Representative prior art of this type developed by the assignee of this invention is as follows:
U.S. Ser. No. 725,339 filed Sept. 21, 1976 (continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 548,231 filed Feb. 10, 1975) for Pyrochemical Processes for the Decomposition of Water; PA0 U.S. Ser. No. 718,026 filed Aug. 26, 1978 (continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 414,367 filed Nov. 9, 1973, now abandoned) for Production of Hydrogen Based Gaseous Fuel; PA0 U.S. Ser. No. 667,610 filed Mar. 16, 1976 (continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 416,998 filed Nov. 19, 1973, now abandoned), now U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,601, for Multi-Step Chemical and Radiation Process; PA0 U.S. Ser. No. 675,137 filed Apr. 8, 1976 (continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 478,877 filed June 7, 1974), now U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,727, for Method and Apparatus for the Manufacture of Methanol; and PA0 U.S. Ser. No. 609,834 filed Sept. 2, 1975, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,150, for Means and Method for Processing Chemicals with Radiation.
The radiolysis of C(S)+CO.sub.2 is not new. The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority has been concerned for many years about graphite rod gasification under radiation conditions, Dominey, D., H. Morley, and R. Waite, The Radiolytic Reaction between Graphite and CO.sub.2, AERE Report R. 4987 (1967).
This considered the radiolytic reaction between graphite and CO.sub.2 and found that the reaction C+CO.sub.2 goes at temperatures as low as 400.degree. K. in the presence of radiation. Without radiation, the normal temperatures necessary to achieve reaction are well in excess of 900.degree. K., Copestake, T. and N. Corney, "Radiation induced Reaction of CO.sub.2 with Graphite," 3rd Conf. on Indust. C, London (1971).
This study of the radiation-induced reaction of CO.sub.2 with graphite found that there was a significant increase in the reaction rate for very small particle sizes and for low CO.sub.2 pressures. Their highest observed G value, however, was only 2.6. Anderson and Dominey in Radiation Research Reviews 1, 269 (1968), report a maximum in graphite pores of 4.6 with half believed to be derived from the gaseous CO.sub.2. At that time, Anderson and Dominey believed that the energy was absorbed by the CO.sub.2 gas, leading to chemically active species which attacked the graphite, rather than by energy absorption by the graphite itself. In a dissertation performed at the University of Utah in 1974, Che, S., "Microwave Pyrolysis of Coals of Polynuclear Hydrocarbons," Ph.D Dissertation, U-Utah, irradiated coal using microwaves. He finds that microwave pyrolysis of coals is a rapid gasification process. All of the experiments are difficult and quantitative information with respect to the mechanism of the reaction sequence and even the resulting yields as a function of the input energy, are not well understood.
It is clear that the prior art has not resulted in large yields of CO from radiolytic processes from either CO.sub.2, C or mixtures thereof, nor has it derived any processes where the expected G(CO) could be radically increased by an order of magnitude.
Neither has there been any specific radiolysis treatment of C(S)+CO by high energy neutrons achieved from fusion reactions to convert the neutron kinetic energy to thermal energy for efficiently thermally driving the C(S)+CO.sub.2 .fwdarw.2CO process in supplementation of the radiolysis process to produce a higher G(C0) yield to an order of magnitude. The present invention proposed the combined effects of radiolysis, thermal drive at higher, more efficient temperature ranges and scavenging of O.sub.2 by C to produce greater G(CO) yields in the order of 100.